


couple thousand miles is just a little space

by toastweasel



Series: the feeling never fades out my body [5]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Shameless Smut, me horribly mocking bad radio shows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:35:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toastweasel/pseuds/toastweasel
Summary: A recently retired Lin travels with Kya to the Southern Water Tribe and gets settled in her new home for the next four months: Kya's Harbor City apartment.[Part of the song-verse but can be read without having read that series. Written for Kyalin Week 2020: Day 2/4: domestic & travel.]
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Series: the feeling never fades out my body [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918957
Comments: 23
Kudos: 148





	couple thousand miles is just a little space

**Author's Note:**

> I mixed Day 2 (domestic) and Day 4 (travel) for Kyalin Week and got this! Enjoy :)
> 
> As always, thank you to Linguini for betaing. <3

Harbor City was breathtaking from the air.

Even Lin, who didn’t like heights, or the cold, or water, could appreciate the way the city was nestled below tall, snow-capped mountains on the plains of the arctic tundra. Kya said in the summer months it was even more beautiful; summer was when the tundra thawed enough to sustain life, and the flowers bloomed. The ground would be covered with a thick carpet of reindeer-seal moss, grasses, and lichen, and when the time came Lin would be able to walk barefoot on ground once again.

The land they approached via air bison was nothing like what Kya had promised.

It was still the depths of winter, just after New Year, and the city was covered in a dense layer of snow. Below them, the harbor was criss-crossed with the spidery lines of icebreakers keeping the southern port open for business, and the dim lights of the city glimmered in the perpetual dusk of near-twilight winter.

It _was_ beautiful, the network of tightly packed yellow lights tucked against the black expanse of the mountains, with the dark open tundra and ice shelf stretching beyond for as far as the eye could see.

It was just very, very far removed from the skyscrapers, glitz, and expansive sprawl of Republic City.

Not to mention significantly chillier.

“We’re going to _have_ to get you a parka,” Kya told her with a fond smile as Bumi flicked Tashi’s reins and started them into a slow glide towards the docks. “You can’t live here and not have one.”

Lin wrinkled her nose and tucked herself deeper into the collar of her greatcoat. “You know I hate those things.”

“I know,” Kya murmured, and gave her a mollifying kiss to the corner of the mouth when her brother wasn’t looking. “We’ll figure out a way to get you something where you can be warm and still use your bending.”

Lin restrained a sigh and busied herself with getting ready for disembarking. Together the two of them rolled up the fur they had been using to keep warm for the two-day journey and lashed in to the back of the saddle for safe keeping. Tashi landed with a thud on an empty dock, startling a flock of puffins-seals off the end and into the water.

Kya immediately slid down the back of the air bison’s tail and caught the bags her brother bent over the side.

“Thanks for the ride, Bum,” she said as Lin joined her and grabbed her duffle bag from the pile. “We’ll catch up with you and Tenzin at the compound in a few days.”

“Don’t mention it,” Bumi said with a grin as he moved back up to Tashi’s head and stroked her fur soothingly. “You ready to get a load of Retirement Lin?”

Lin rolled her eyes. Kya laughed and patted Tashi on the flank. “Yes, and I’m ready to have her all to myself. Now get going, Mom’s expecting you for dinner.”

Her older brother laughed. “See you later, lovebirds. Tashi, yip yip.”

The bison took off with a gust of wind that ruffled their clothes and had the added effect of chilling Lin to the bone. She grumbled to herself in displeasure as Kya stooped and scooped her bags up into her arms.

“You’re in luck, babe,” Kya said as she started down the dock into town, “my place isn’t far from here.”

It _wasn’t_ too far. After less than a fifteen minute walk, they were inside the building and Kya was fumbling with her keys as she juggled her luggage. Lin reached out to hold a bag, and with a newly freed hand Kya was finally able to engage the lock and push open the door into her apartment.

Not much had changed since the last time Lin had visited Kya’s Harbor City apartment. Her partner’s kitchen was still a mess, albeit a clean one, and detritus from the whirlwind of Kya’s packing was scattered about the sunken living room and across the bed that peeked out from behind the half-open screens into the bedroom. There were still furs and pillows scattered around and under the kotatsu table by the fire, and Kya’s battered radio was propped on the windowsill overlooking the harbor.

“I’ll get the fire going,” Kya said cheerfully, and dumped her bags by the door to go scoop pellets into the wood stove.

Lin bent and grabbed the bags by their handles, then tugged them over to the bedroom. She nudged open the double-screens with her foot then set both her and Kya’s bags on the bed. As Kya knelt with spark rocks and a few pieces of scrap kindling to start the fire, Lin collected up a few discarded items of her partner’s clothing and took them over to the closet door. After almost five years of dating, and several visits, she knew vaguely where the items should go; she found hangers and carefully put them where they belong.

“Should I just put my clothes in the closet?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Kya called back from the living room. “Clear some space and we’ll worry about the rest as you get more clothes.”

Lin didn’t have much. She hung up the few things that needed to be hung, and folded the rest neatly and set it on the shelf above the bar. She’d never had a lot of _stuff_ , especially not clothing, but seeing her sparse population of shirts, pants, underthings and sleepwear taking up less than a quarter of Kya’s closet was something else.

This was an experiment, this split-continent, split-city living arrangement, but one they would have to get right if they wanted their relationship to survive.

Lin felt Kya pad from the living room into the bedroom, then the vibration of her feet was muffled by the soft carpet of the floor. Still, there was enough that Lin didn’t jump when Kya wrapped her arms around her middle and set her chin on her shoulder.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Kya’s arms tightened a fraction, giving her a squeeze, and Lin let herself relax slightly back against her partner’s chest.

“You okay with this so far?”

The metalbender made a soft noise of assent and Kya happily buzzed a gentle kiss against the side of her neck.

“We really do need to take you shopping.”

“You sound like Su,” Lin groused.

“Maybe,” Kya allowed with a laugh, “but the difference between me and Su is that I’m actively trying to prevent you from freezing to death down here.”

Lin rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, Mom took me shopping when I first moved, too,” her partner said with a soft smile. “It’s a rite of passage.”

“Is that so?”

“Mmhm. Nobody will judge you.”

“I see.”

Kya pulled gently away. “Are you hungry yet?”

“I could eat.” Lin shrugged, then picked out a set of lounge pants and a tank top and tucked them under one arm. “You had no plans for us for the rest of the evening, correct?”

“Nope.”

Kya popped the p with a smile, and Lin’s heart did a little skitter. After all these years, Kya could still make her feel like a moonstruck teenager again.

“I’m going to shower.”

“Would you like company?”

 _Company_ in the shower always turned into sex with Kya. Not that Lin minded, but she had two days of travel fatigue to wash off her skin and wasn’t interested in doing anything _remotely_ close to sex until she had scrubbed herself raw and washed her hair to get the grease out.

“Not this time.”

“Aw, spoilsport,” Kya said without a hint of malice, then she kissed Lin good-naturedly to show her she had just been teasing. “I almost certainly have absolutely nothing to eat, but I’ll see what I can whip up.”

“We could just order take out.”

“We could,” her partner practically sing-songed, then sailed off for the kitchen without another word.

Lin huffed in gentle exasperation and went to shower, scrubbing the hours of travel and wood smoke from their campfires from her hair and skin as Kya banged around in the kitchen. The warm water took the chill out of her bones, and by the time Lin stepped out of the bathroom the apartment had warmed significantly enough where she no longer needed her coat or even a sweater. 

She drifted into the kitchen in her lounge clothes, tousling her hair dry with the towel as she went. Kya was leaning against the counter, going through her backlog of mail as something simmered in a pot on the stove.

“What did you find?”

Kya looked up at her and smiled. “Mmm, nice and clean. Come here.”

Lin obliged her and closed the distance between them with the kiss she knew Kya wanted. Her partner hummed happily and set the mail aside in favor of sliding her hands up Lin’s hips and under her shirt.

“Kya…”

“What?” she asked innocently. “I can’t help it. You’re so sexy when you’re freshly showered.”

The earthbender rolled her eyes, the third time in an hour, and pulled away. “What are you making?”

“Just soup. Had some stock frozen in the ice box, and dried mushrooms, fish, and vegetables in the pantry.”

Lin found a spoon and tasted the soup, then reached into Kya’s cabinets and added a heavy pinch of hot flakes to the broth.

“Hey! I haven’t seasoned it yet.”

“Just did,” Lin deadpanned, but passed the tin of hot flakes over to Kya. The waterbender took the spoon, stirred and sipped the broth, then added another pinch. Lin nodded in approval and Kya put the pepper away.

“I’ll add some noodles, too, but only once the mushrooms have fully rehydrated.” Kya picked up her mail again and continued to go through it, weeding out the bills and junk mail. “Did you set your post up to forward here while you were gone?”

She grunted in the affirmative and reached around Kya to acquire tea. Kya bent her a pot of water and set it to boil, then found Lin an infuser for the tea leaves.

“Thanks.”

“Pour me a cup, too.”

Lin went to go hang her towel up to dry while the teapot boiled. When the water was ready, Lin carefully dipped the infuser into the pot, then scrawled a short To Do list on the back of a piece of junk mail.

“Had some time to think in the shower?”

“Mmm. Need to get a subscription to the newspaper down here.”

“Probably should,” Kya agreed. “But you can turn on the radio until you find the news channel. I think it’s AM 1065 for local, 1068 for global.”

“Thanks.”

Lin went to fiddle with the radio, fussing with the dial until she found the station that came through. She leaned against the cool wall, crossed her arms idly across her chest, and listened to the news as she watched Kya putter around barefoot in the kitchen. Kya’s humming was just audible under the voice of the news anchor, and Lin admired the deftness of her hands as she added dehydrated rice noodles from a package in the cupboard and the surety in her gaze as Kya dunked the noodles firmly under the surface of the soup with a long pair of cooking chopsticks.

Damn, she was lucky.

Of all the people in the world, and she had gotten Kya.

After all of the fuck ups she had made, all the ways she’d been apparently determined to ruin her own life, and here she was, in a relationship at pushing sixty. Freshly retired and standing in Kya’s apartment, watching her cook. Well, their apartment now, she supposed, until the snow began to thaw and it would be back to Republic City for the second quarter, where she’d help train a new round of cadets over the summer.

“You’re staring, love.”

“What?” Lin snapped out of it, and stood up straighter. “Oh. Sorry.”

“You know I don’t mind.”

Lin turned down the radio and drifted back over to the kitchen, where the tea was ready. Kya popped the infuser out of the pot and bent the water to dry the leaves, then handed it to Lin to discard. As she carefully thumped them out into Kya’s compost bin, she heard her partner opening up the cupboards for bowls.

Dinner was finished.

They ate cross legged in front of the wood stove at Kya’s kotatsu, quietly slurping noodles and sipping their teas as they listened to the news anchor report about the newest art exhibition out of the Northern Water Tribe. Chiefs Desna and Eska had attended the opening and, despite their apparent indifference, the art had been deemed a rousing success anyway.

“What were you thinking about earlier?” Kya asked as the news anchor changed topic to the news from the Foggy Swamp. Lin shot her a quizzical look and Kya clarified, “When you were staring earlier. You had your thinking face on.”

“My thinking face?”

“When you get serious you get a face,” her partner told her with amusement twinkling in her eyes. “It’s very handsome.”

“Oh.” Lin felt the flush creeping over her cheeks, and she tugged at the back of her neck self-consciously. “I was just thinking that…I hope this works. This experiment of ours.”

Kya’s eyes softened. “Oh, Lin.” She reached out and took Lin’s hand, dragging her thumb over her knuckles before Lin’s fingers a gentle squeeze. “I love you. Of course it will.”

Lin met her gaze for only a moment and gave a tight little smile. “I’m not worried about you.”

“Well that would be a first in my relationships,” Kya joked, and carefully she leaned over and took Lin’s other hand in hers as well. “Why are you worried about you?”

She hesitated, looked down at her bowl, didn’t answer.

“Is it the change?”

She didn’t understand the feeling of dread in her chest, why this whole expedition filled her with such trepidation. Maybe it _was_ the change, the sudden move to Harbor City just after she retired from the RCPD after fifty years on the force.

Kya was looking pensive across the table. “Is it the fact you’re retired now?”

Like she had read her mind.

“Don’t remind me.”

Kya smiled and squeezed her hands. “We’ll find a way for you to keep yourself busy, don’t worry.”

Kya knew her so well. Sometimes even better than she knew herself.

Lin pulled her hands away and reached for the dishes on the table. “Let me get these.”

“You won’t see me complaining.”

Sometimes it felt good just to get things off her chest. Not get any resolution, just to say things out loud. She was learning that with Kya. Slower than perhaps her partner would have liked, but it was happening.

As Lin cleaned up from dinner, Kya went to change the radio station. Lin recognized the tail end of old episode of Kya’s favorite serial radio drama and checked her watch. It was almost time for the new episode.

Kya picked up a few things on the floor of the living room, then settled in front of the stove with her cup of tea and sipped quietly as she listened. Lin finished up and joined her, leaning on her good hip amongst the pillows and furs.

Kya immediately rolled to her side and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “Are you going to listen with me?”

“I suppose.”

“Only now you don’t have any paperwork to work on and get distracted halfway through,” Kya teased, and settled her hand on Lin’s chest just above her breasts. She kissed her again, a kiss that Lin returned until Kya pulled away to snuggle into the crook of her arm.

Kya’s show was even weirder when listened to attentively. By the time the heroine was meditating into the spirit world to rip an evil spirit out of the potted plant currently bent on terrorizing her Republic City apartment complex, Lin was desperate for distraction. She watched the flames dance in the wood stove and the glint of the Southern Lights through the clouds that were rolling across the darkened Harbor City sky.

“Who writes this crap?” Lin finally asked over a commercial break.

“Hush,” Kya chided. “I don’t say anything about your romance novels.” A pause. “But this episode is particularly bad.”

The earthbender rolled her eyes, and Kya shifted so she could set her hand on Lin’s chest. Lin glanced down at her at the touch and Kya stretched up for a kiss; she dipped down and brushed her lips against her partner’s and Kya hummed underneath her.

It was a soft kiss, slow and sweet in the way that the waterbender slid her arms around her neck and pressed up against her. Lin’s hand found her side, sliding down her body out of habit and toying idly with the slit in Kya’s dress.

“Hey you,” the older woman murmured fondly.

Lin made a soft noise of inquiry.

“I love you.”

Lin’ grip tightened on her hip, her fingers dipping into the fabric of her dress. Her lips twitched up against Kya’s and she kissed her again, pressing a hand up to cup her cheek. Kya sighed happily and sank further against her, draping herself across Lin’s chest, and Lin wrapped her arm around her waist. Kya was warm against her, her skin and clothes heated by the fire. She pulled her closer, and Kya happily settled.

“My favorite spot,” she teased, then leaned down to kiss her again. Her lips were soft—she’d been applying lip balm to them religiously since they left Republic City to protect them from the harsh wind on Tashi’s back—and Lin got lost in the sensation.

After a few long moments, Kya shifted and tugged gently on Lin’s lower lip to indicate she wanted to deepen the kiss; Lin was happy to oblige. She opened her mouth wider, kissed just a shade harder, and Kya sighed softly. Her long fingers slid into Lin’s hair, combing through her still-damp and pin-free tresses. Lin let her eyes flutter closed as her partner’s nails scraped against her scalp, and she tugged her closer by the hips.

Kya pulled back with a cheeky little smile. “Keep that up and I’m going to think you want to have sex with me.”

“Maybe I do,” Lin challenged, and she relished in the way Kya’s skin darkened imperceptibly.

“You didn’t want to have sex earlier.”

“I didn’t want to have sex _in the shower_.”

Kya’s face lit up as she moved within a hairsbreadth of her once more. Her voice was husky in anticipation as she asked, “Are you going to take care of me?”

Lin idly palmed Kya’s ass, relishing her soft gasp. “If that’s what you want…?”

 _“_ Mmm, _please.”_ Lin shivered at the inflection in her voice. Kya pressed herself more firmly against Lin, tucking her face in against Lin’s neck and pressing a kiss to her sensitive neck. “Take care of me, love.”

Lin hummed and lifted her knee between her legs; Kya made a soft noise, her breath warm against Lin’s skin as she pressed herself down against the firm muscle of the earthbender’s thigh.

“Alright?”

“Mmmhmm,” Kya managed, grinding softly for a moment, her dress bunching up against the fabric of Lin’s pants, before Kya moved up to kiss her again.

The kiss was hot; Lin tightened her grasp on Kya’s ass and she opened her mouth, letting Lin tug gently on her bottom lip before deepening the kiss. Lin felt one of Kya’s hands cup her cheek, felt her finger stroke just above her scars, felt Kya’s hand squirming between them and fussing with the ties of her dress.

She broke the kiss to tease, “Thought I was supposed to do that.”

“Too slow,” Kya replied cheekily, levering up on her elbows and pulling her belt free. Lin slid her hand up to undo the clasps of her partner’s overdress, and Kya sat back in her lap to strip off first her overdress, then her dark blue underdress.

Lin slid her hands reverently up Kya’s toned legs, squeezing gently at the apex and digging her thumbs in on either side of her underwear. Kya squirmed and laughed, and pushed her hips down into Lin’s.

“Come back,” Lin said, and Kya did, slotting herself back over Lin’s leg and pressing against her once more. Lin’s hands found the back of her thighs and she tugged her close, making Kya whimper happily.

“Remember the first time we did this?”

“Yes,” Lin murmured, “you kept complaining about my belt buckle.”

“That’s because it was in the _way_ ,” her partner intoned seriously, and plucked at the waistband of Lin’s lounge pants. “These are much better.”

Lin huffed out a laugh and slid her hands up the length of Kya’s back, savoring the feeling of her fire-warmed skin. Kya pressed to her touch and started to grind against her once more as Lin found the ties to her breast band and slowly undid them. The waterbender signed softly as it came free and shifted so Lin could pull it free; she did so, tossing the piece of animal skin to the side with relish.

When Kya shifted back, Lin felt her nipples press through her shirt.

Suddenly, it was all she could do to get her own clothes off.

She tapped Kya’s hip and shoved her pants off, and as soon as Kya caught on, her fingers found the clasps of Lin’s shirt and undid them. Kya’s hands found her breasts, and they exchanged a soft kiss as Kya rolled one of Lin’s nipples gently between two fingers.

“Kya,” she groaned softly into her mouth, settling one hand on her thigh and giving it a squeeze.

Kya smiled softly against her lips and shifted, tugging Lin over until they were both on their sides and Kya could trail her foot up Lin’s leg as she teased her.

“Thought _I_ was supposed to be taking care of _you_ ,” Lin all but growled as she pressed her hand between them and oh-so-slowly began to massage her through her underwear.

Kya’s breath hitched. She pushed closer to Lin until her leg was thrown over her hip and she was burying her fingers in her hair. Lin made a soft noise against her, savoring the feeling of Kya’s nails against her scalp, and snapped the band of her underwear. Kya shoved them down, kicking them off as Lin’s fingers returned to her apex and slid through her wetness.

 _“Fuck,_ babe!” 

Lin smiled against her skin, pulling arousal up from her entrance and circling around her clit. Kya shuddered against her, hiking her leg higher, trying to get her to slide inside. Lin took her time though, making Kya shake and whimper by rubbing her clit _just right_ before sliding her finger down and slowly teasing her entrance.

Kya made a frustrated noise and cupped Lin’s face, tugging her close. As she kissed her, teeth pulling her lips apart in her need, Lin carefully pressed a finger inside of her.

The waterbender’s moan was muffled by the kiss, but Lin’s wasn’t. She groaned softly as Kya’s wet heat enveloped her finger and she shifted, probing deep, searching for the spot Kya loved. She knew she had found it when Kya’s breath hitched, and she started rocking her body slowly in time with the thrusts of her fingers.

“Lin,” Kya whined softly, almost too quietly to be heard, as her hands tightened in her partner’s hair. She tucked in against Lin, their increasingly sweaty chests slipping against each other. The light from the fire reflected across Kya’s hair and skin in beautiful patterns as she pushed her higher, teased her with one finger and then another until Kya was clamped tightly around her and she could barely move inside of her.

Her partner spilled over the edge like the breaking of an ice floe; slowly, and then all at once. Her head fell back and her back arched, and then she moaned, mouth opening and eyes slamming shut as the orgasm overtook her. Lin worked until Kya grabbed her wrist and rolled over onto her back, the earthbender’s fingers still deep inside her.

“Spirits,” Kya gasped, still very much out of breath, and Lin carefully pulled out, resting her wet fingers on Kya’s sweat-slickened stomach. She leaned up on one elbow and looked down at her, saw how her lover’s silver hair fanned out on the furs and stuck in sweaty strands to her face.

“Alright?”

“Mmm….”

Lin tucked one loose strand of Kya’s hair behind her ear, then leaned down and kissed her. Kya made a happy noise in the back of her throat and draped her arms lazily around Lin’s shoulders, kissing her back slow and sweet.

They drifted apart slowly, then Kya tugged her back against chest to cuddle. Lin huffed but settled in the curve of her arm, draping her arm across Kya’s stomach and letting her own eyes close as the waterbender gently carded her fingers through her hair. It felt good. The furs of Kya’s living room floor were soft against her back, and despite their mutual nakedness, they were kept warm from the chill outside by the stove.

Kya sighed happily and dropped a kiss down on Lin’s hair. “I love you.”

She rubbed her thumb against Kya’s skin and murmured, “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what you read, I always enjoy comments telling me your favorite parts. :)


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